Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

Tag: rest

How the Sea Can Help You Pray

Everyone living today in America in or near a city has a desperate need for the three S’s: silence, solitude, and slowing down—both for psychological sanity and for prayer. 1. Silence. Kierkegaard, the great nineteenth century Danish Christian philosopher, spoke often of silence. Almost the last thing he ever wrote was about silence. He said:… Read More ›

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Yes!

When meditating on one of the final prayers of Jesus on the cross- “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me”; if pursued with diligence, can be transforming in how ones relationship with God is looked upon and also perhaps, how this is shared with others.  For Christians, Jesus is an actual revelation of… Read More ›

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Purpose

Inner pain is a far from rare experience for humans.  Being self-aware comes with a high cost that often causes the inner self, or soul or consciousness to bleed.  Perhaps our first step towards being unique personalities with a personal perspective starts when we first experience pain.  For it is then, when we are torn… Read More ›

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Glimpsing the Cosmic Dance

When we are alone on a starlit night, when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children, when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet, Basho,… Read More ›

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The heart

It is all about the heart in the end; the longing, seeking, our fears and hopes, are in truth centered in the heart, which in spite of its narcissism is called to grow into infinity. Hidden in darkness grace does it’s silent work not allowing rest such is the hearts gnawing, an unending arid region… Read More ›

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Some Thoughts on Sunrise

Sunrise: hidden by pines and cedars to the east, I saw the red flame of the kingly sun glaring through the black trees, not like dawn but like a forest fire.  Then the sun became distinguished as a person, and he shone silently and with solemn power through the branches, and the whole world was… Read More ›

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When does one begin to live fully?

The fact that our being necessarily demands to be expressed in action should not lead us to believe that as soon as we stop acting we cease to exist. We do not live merely in order to ‘do something’ – no matter what. Activity is just one of the normal expressions of life, and the… Read More ›

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Calming a restless mind

A brother questioned an old man, saying, “My thoughts wander and I am troubled by this.” The old man said to him, “Remain sitting in your cell and your thoughts will come to rest. For truly, just as when the she-ass is tied her colt runs here and there but always comes back to his… Read More ›

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The Church is waiting at the tomb and weeps

The last day of Holy Week: a fruitful stillness before the breathtaking action of the night. Perhaps only the greatest Russian writers have succeeded in painting it as it is, a pause, a last moment of waiting, made holy by the Lord’s rest in the tomb. The Church is waiting at the tomb and weeps…. Read More ›

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The Mystery of the Lord’s Day

The Lord’s Day is a mystery of the knowledge of the truth that is not received by flesh and blood, and it transcends speculations. In this age there is no eighth day, nor is there a true Sabbath. For he who said that `God rested on the seventh day,’ signified the rest [of our nature]… Read More ›

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